


Have we not been dating?

by Skiddit



Category: One Direction (Band), Radio 1 RPF
Genre: Angst, Confused boys not communicating?, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-17
Updated: 2015-04-17
Packaged: 2018-03-21 21:57:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3705813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skiddit/pseuds/Skiddit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Have we not been dating for the past five months?”<br/>“What? Not that I’ve been aware of! I’ve been waiting and waiting for you to ask me out or do something!”<br/>“Wait. Are you saying that you’ve thought this whole time we’ve just been fuck buddies or something and have been waiting for me to ask you out, while I’ve thought we were already dating?” </p><p>or alternatively: the one where Louis doesn't realize they've been dating</p>
            </blockquote>





	Have we not been dating?

**Author's Note:**

> Uh so, this is my first completed drabble thing for tomlinshaw. Enjoy and I'd love it if you left a comment even if its just to say you hated it. Enjoy.

i.  
“Here, I meant to give this to you ages ago and I forgot” Nick tosses the small object into Louis’s lap before plopping down on the couch beside him and shoving his cold toes underneath Louis’ thigh. Grabbing the remote from the coffee table, he starts flicking through the channels on the telly without paying any attention to Louis or the item in Louis’s lap. 

Louis, on the other hand, is paying the item a lot of attention. He actually hasn’t looked away from the item since he formed an idea of what it was. The small metal shape looks suspiciously like a key, but Louis must be imagining things. It can’t be a key. Nick wouldn’t be giving him a key. He picks it up, thumb rubbing over the laser cut grooves that could possibly line up to the pins in the lock on Nick’s ridiculously yellow front door. 

“Is this a key to your flat Nick?” Louis asks, trying to remain calm sounding and not like he’s quickly analyzing the implications involved with giving someone a key to their flat. If Louis is being honest with himself, he isn’t succeeding very well, but Nick seems oblivious to Louis’s mini breakdown and the fact that his brain is melting out of his ears. 

“Yes, it is. What other key would I be giving you, Lou?” Nick responds giving a quick glance over to Louis’ face, before going back to flicking through the channels, still not able to settle on something to watch. “I figured this way you won’t be waiting on me, if I’m running late or something comes up. I mean, you’re here most days that you’re in the country and, like I said, I meant to give it to you ages ago. I just kept forgetting about it, and with you pet-sitting Pig next weekend while I’m up at my parents, you’d kind of need a key to get into the flat.”

It’s clear to Louis that Nick doesn’t think that the key is a big deal. Maybe it isn’t. Maybe Louis has read too much into it all. Louis is pet-sitting Pig, of course Louis would need a key. Even if it’s just to make sure Pig hasn’t offed herself while Nick abandons her and Louis for a whole weekend with his parents. That’s all it is. He is just overthinking it. 

Louis bites back the mild disappointment crawling up his throat. It isn’t like he’s dating Nick or anything. They just hang out and fuck when they’re both in the same city and are both available. There’s never any indications from Nick that he wants a relationship with Louis, and Louis is most certainly not going to embarrass himself by asking. He’s okay with how things are right now. Of course, he wouldn’t be opposed to moving things forward with Nick, but if all he can have is this, then he will be happy with it. 

“Thank you. Would have been kind of amusing, if you had come back from your parents and she had gotten into all of your shoes and they were torn to shreds? All because you had forgotten to give me a key and I wasn’t able to get in.” Louis tries joking, while petting Pig’s head as she passes by the couch.  
Nick glares at Pig, as if accusing her of already having done the deed. “She had better not, or she’ll be sleeping in the garden for the next week.” 

Pig is not impressed, if how she jumps into Louis’s lap, facing away from Nick, is any indication of her opinion.

ii.  
To say that shopping with Nick is an interesting experience would be an understatement. Louis has to refrain from rolling his eyes as they walk into Waitrose. They are in Waitrose, for god sake. Nobody actually shops here.

Louis didn’t really plan on going with Nick to get groceries, but here he is, standing in the middle of the bread aisle of Waitrose, while Nick debates between 7 grain bread and 5 grain bread. He was already over at Nick’s when Nick decided he really needed to go grocery shopping immediately. Louis was most certainly not going to sit in Nick’s flat without him, so, of course, Louis had to tag along. Louis say it as an excuse to pick up normal snacks for their movie later that night. 

After more deliberation than anyone should give to bread, Nick chooses the one boasting “7 heart healthy grains!” claiming that more grains are obviously better for you. Louis, of course, just rolls his eyes and follows Nick to the next isle with all the biscuits and sweets.

Now, everyone knows Nick is very particular about the biscuits he allows in his trolley. Apparently, one time he let Aimee pick out a pack of biscuits for him and they were “the most revolting thing that has ever had the pleasure of touching my tongue.” Ever since, he has only bought biscuits that he knows for sure to be of good taste. 

So when, instead of heading straight for his customary digestives and Hobnobs, he starts picking up Louis’ favorites, he almost doesn’t believe it’s happening. Nick tosses Jaffa Cakes, and Penguins, and Jammy Dodgers into the cart one by one, not seeming to think that this was out of the ordinary at all.  
“Uh, Nick?” Louis hesitantly asks, while eyeing the contents of the trolley, as if he’s not sure his eyes aren’t playing tricks on him. “You do realize that those aren’t your biscuits right? Those are Jammy Dodgers and Jaffa Cakes, not digestives.”

“I know, Louis. I’m making my way down to them. I haven’t forgotten them.” Nick continues down the aisle, grabbing his stuff as he goes, while Louis stands there absolutely dumbfounded. 

“But you don’t eat those! You only eat your dumb pre-approved biscuits!” Louis calls after Nick, as he turns the corner to the next aisle. 

“Yes, but you do, Louis.” Nick replies (word meaning end of conversation.) He doesn’t seem to get why Louis is so concerned about it, but he most certainly doesn’t want to deal with Louis’ antics over cookies in a grocery store. 

Louis just follows after Nick through the rest of the shop. He watches him pick up other things that Nick would never usually eat, but that Louis literally lives off of such as Pot Noodles and Weetabix. He even picks up Yorkshire Tea and Nick doesn’t even drink tea. At this point, Louis is completely distraught over what Nick was doing. 

Louis, luckily, doesn’t have to wait much longer to find out Nick’s plan. Shortly after Nick picked up the Yorkshire Tea, he pulls the trolley into the queue for checkout and soon they’re on their way back to Nick’s flat. Once they arrive, Nick starts to unload all of the items he bought into their normal locations, except for the oddities he purchased. Those were going into a separate cupboard right next to fridge that, if Louis wasn’t mistaken, used to hold an Easter themed china set Nick had been given as a flat warming gift he was never going to use.

“This is your cupboard.” Nick says, with absolute finality, once all of the groceries had been put away. “This way you’ll stop complaining that there’s nothing in my flat that your stomach can digest, and I won’t accidently grab them in the middle of the night when I get peckish. Just store whatever you want in there and I promise that none of it will get eaten or thrown away.”

“Oh.” Louis responds, quite eloquently, still looking thoroughly confused by the day’s events. “Thank you?”

Nick nods at Louis and makes his way to the living room, getting comfortable on the couch with Pig, while Louis tries to process this newest development.

Louis goes over all of this in his head “There’s a cupboard in Nick’s kitchen for my, and mine only, sweets and biscuits and tea. And Nick has promised that no one else can eat anything in said cupboard without my express permission. No one else has a cupboard in Nick’s kitchen. This isn’t normal, is it?” Louis is properly freaking out at this point. When it was just the key, Louis could justify it as a friends kind of thing. Plenty of Nick’s close friends probably have keys to the flat, Nick hates to be on his own. But this, this is not something all of Nick’s friends have. 

“I don’t understand. I don’t understand why Nick’s doing all of this. These aren’t normal things friends do! Why would Nick give me keys and a cupboard? These are things that couples do! We aren’t a couple! Why does Nick not seem to think they’re big deals, when they’re BIG DEALS? He keeps acting like we’re dating and we aren’t!” At this point, Louis has worked himself up from confused and overwhelmed to full on angry and pissed off. 

“What does Nick think he’s doing? Is he playing a game on me? Or does he want to date me? Is he just being nice to me because we’re fucking on a regular?” Louis is done with wondering and he want answers. 

iii.  
“NICHOLAS!” Louis bellows, stomping into the living room, chest puffing out and looking peeved as all get out. 

Nick, who is still just sitting on the couch talking to Pig, looks up with a slightly confused look on his face. “Now, Louis, is there really any reason to yell? You’re all of ten feet away from me. Why are you yelling?” 

 

“What does all of this mean?!” Louis whines, at a volume still very close to yelling and fully ignoring Nick’s question. “I just can’t take all of this confusion anymore and I just want an answer from you about what the hell we are doing. I can’t keep pretending I’m okay with this limbo land we’re living in!” 

“What does what mean?! What are you on about, Lou?” Nick is actually starting to look a little concerned, thinking Louis has actually lost his mind. His eyebrows are starting to pinch together.

“What does they key and the cupboard mean? What are you trying to do with these? These are things couples do! Do you want to be a couple? Is that what you’re trying to tell me? Because if so, you’re awful at telling people things because I’ve been waiting months! Or are you just fucking with me? Just stringing me along and if so that’s so wrong of you, Nick! I do not understand! Why are you giving me a key and a cupboard? You don’t give friends things like this, even when they’re fucking, unless you want it to become more! Is that what you want?” Louis chest is heaving, sobs threatening to break up his words. “I tried to be clam and think about all of it reasonably, but I can’t! I don’t understand! I just… I just don’t get what you’re trying to do. I need you to tell me what you’re doing.”

Nick is just staring at Louis like he’s unable to comprehend the situation in front of him, and Louis starts to doubt his approach. “Maybe I’m being a bit dramatic and enthusiastic, but I have valid points. Nick isn’t making himself clear and I have every right to be confused.” 

Nick starts to shake his head in disbelief. “Are you questioning why I’m treating you like you’re my boyfriend, Louis?” He calmly asks, while getting up to walk over to where Louis is still standing in the entrance to the living room. 

Louis mumbles in response, starting to sound self-conscious. “Uhm…yes? We aren’t dating, so why are you acting like we are? It’s messing with my head and I don’t know how to handle it anymore. It’s all just so confusing.” 

Nick’s face falls. “What do you mean we aren’t dating, Louis?” Now Nick looks like he’s going to start crying at any moment. “Have we not been dating for the past five months?” 

Louis jerks his head up from where he had been studying the floor. “What? Not that I’ve been aware of! I’ve been waiting and waiting for you to ask me out or do something!” 

“Wait. Are you saying that you’ve thought this whole time we’ve just been fuck buddies or something and have been waiting for me to ask you out, while I’ve thought we were already dating?” 

Both of them stop and just stare for a second at each other. 

Nick cracks first, a small little giggle escaping through his lips. Louis isn’t far behind him, and soon they’re both full on laughing at the situation, falling into each other and sliding to the ground in a pile of giggling limbs.

Once both boys had stopped laughing long enough to catch their breath, Nick pulled Louis into his lap and wrapped his arms around his waist. “Louis, I asked you out 3 weeks after we started hanging out. Remember? It was at that party of Harry’s where Liam tried to out drink Niall. You said yes and everything! That normally would mean that we were dating. Why did you think we weren’t?”

Louis face lights up in recognition when he realizes what party Nick is talking about. “Oh my god, Nick! We were both drunk off our asses! I thought you were just fucking around! How am I supposed to take you seriously when we were both so drunk that it’s a miracle either of us remembers any of that week?” 

“I had been hinting at it all night! And I took you out on a date the next night! I don’t just take random people out on dates Louis! We had pasta! And wine! And we walked through a park! Do you do that with everyone you know?”

“Well, no! I just thought you were doing it to get into my pants that night! I mean like ‘wine and dine’ right? And I thought the park was just the quickest route back to your apartment!” Louis desperately defended his diminishing rational. “You know, Nick, I don’t take hints easily! You should have known that I wouldn’t have taken you seriously and that I wouldn’t have realized we were on a date much less dating! Really, this is all your fault!”

“Louis, you idiot.” Nick murmurs in Louis ear, while Louis continues on his tangent, completely oblivious to Nick.

Louis stops to turn to Nick. “Yes, but now I’m your idiot and I know it.”


End file.
